AG Schimel Fights to End California’s Restrictive Farming Regulations

Attorney General Brad Schimel. (Contributed photo)

December 5, 2017

City Times Staff

MADISON — District Attorney Brad Schimel is taking the war on Wisconsin’s agricultural regulations to California.

According to a news release, Attorney General Brad Schimel announced today that his office is challenging California’s attempt to impose agricultural regulations on the State of Wisconsin, to the U.S. Supreme Court.

“California’s attempt to impose their regulations on Wisconsin farmers is overreaching and unconstitutional,” said Schimel. “In order to ensure Wisconsin farmers a stable and reasonable regulatory environment, excessive regulations must be stopped.”

Wisconsin is challenging a California law requiring Wisconsin egg producers to comply with California’s farming regulations in order to sell eggs in California. The suit claims that California’s regulations violate both a federal law prohibiting states from imposing their own standards on eggs produced in other states, and the Commerce Clause of the U.S. Constitution, which gives Congress exclusive authority to regulate commerce among and between states.

In 2016, a three-judge panel of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that states lacked standing to pursue their claims. Today’s filing in the U.S. Supreme Court answers this by providing a careful economic analysis that establishes the impact of these burdensome regulations.

Missouri is leading the challenge, and in addition to Wisconsin, is joined by 11 other states: Alabama, Arkansas, Indiana, Iowa, Louisiana, Nebraska, Nevada, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Texas, and Utah.